on a quiet spring morning
by awintea
Summary: akira hikaru // Hikaru shows up at Akira's home to play a game of Go, and Akira cannot help but notice that something is different // oneshot.


**on a quiet spring morning**

Playing games of Go entirely at Hikaru's whim is nothing new. To be honest, most everything Akira does is somehow or another because Hikaru wants him to do it. Not that Akira is unwilling - usually what Hikaru wants Akira to do is the same thing as what Akira wants to do, since what they usually want to do is play Go. However, if Hikaru wants them to go out for ramen and Akira does not want to, the two will most probably end up going out for ramen. There are of course a few times when Akira does get his way, but it is far more familiar for the black-haired young man to succumb to Hikaru's wishes.

Today is different though. Hikaru shows up uninvited at Akira's home in the morning, instead of contacting him first via his usual "1:30 go salon" text. Hikaru rarely goes to Akira's home, simply because it is a little out of the way - it is far simpler for the two to meet at Go salons en route to lunch or the Go institute if one of them has a match.

Despite the irregularity of the event, Hikaru does show up, with nothing but a grin on his face and the fan in his hand. Hikaru never does bring any gifts along - no fruit, no wine, no anything. He seems to believe that he himself is a good enough present, if his general cockiness (which, now that it has become less ridiculous, is almost charming) is any evidence.

Akira says nothing - Hikaru grins more widely and answers his question.

'Just felt like playing a game today,' the young man with the bleached hair says, taking off his shoes and then walking right in as if the apartment were his own. Akira tells Hikaru this, but Hikaru just ignores him, continuing to stroll straight to the room with the goban.

(It's mysterious. Even when Akira moves the goban from one room to another, Hikaru always ends up finding it without much preamble - it is almost as if he has a goban radar built into his head.)

Instead of complaining further, Akira goes to brew hot tea for himself and grab a can of iced tea for Hikaru. As he waits, he wonders, as he always does whenever Hikaru acts even slightly out of the ordinary.

_Will it be today?_

Because it will be one of these strange meetings, Akira is sure, that will prompt an explanation. Even Hikaru cannot be offhand about something so important, so intrinsic to Hikaru's being -

Rather, Hikaru, of all people, cannot afford to be offhand about Sai.

When he brings out the tea, Hikaru has already pulled out the goban and the Go stones, as well as seated himself next to it. He is tapping quietly with his fan, a beat that is most definitely erratic but is nevertheless strangely cadenced. Akira sets the tea down next to them and kneels, but neither of them reaches for a drink.

Even before they start playing, Akira notices that something is different. He does not say anything about it, not when they exchange the usual courtesies, nor when Hikaru plays his first move. He does not mention the feeling that today, Hikaru seems to be positively electric, and that the sparks from him are charging the air around them with every move he makes.

He does not bring up the fact that it feels like, once again, he is the one aeons away from reaching Hikaru's level, because it does not make sense. Though Hikaru has been steadily progressing so that each game they play is a fierce battle, it is different right now. Akira feels like the one with the army that has been decimated, the general with the troops that are not retreating only because they want to fight until the end.

It feels like the second game that they played, but he says nothing, because on the goban he spots them. The discrepancies - times where Hikaru hesitated where he wouldn't normally, stones which Hikaru places in spots when usually he would place them elsewhere. Though Hikaru's Go is always, always evolving, today it is like he is playing someone else's game, and it shows, when Hikaru places his fan down and bows his head, conceding defeat.

'I have lost.' Hikaru is staring down at the board, the slightest frown on his face. 'I shouldn't have risked it.'

_Risked what?_ Akira wants to ask - he does not know whether Hikaru is talking about a move in the game or the game itself. Instead, he offers advice, as is their custom, but Hikaru does not rise to any of Akira's comments with any outbursts, any arguments.

That in itself is unnerving.

'What, it's that late already?' Hikaru exclaims after a couple minutes, looking at the clock on the wall. He is already grinning again. 'I promised my mom I'd go home for lunch today and it'll take forever to get back on the train.' He jumps up, grabbing the unopened can of tea next to him - it has long grown warm from the heat of the room. 'I'll catch you later, Touya!' And he runs, getting to the door before Akira even has the time to stand up.

'Shindou!' he calls out, and Hikaru turns, his bleached bangs catching the light from the window.

Akira says nothing else. Hikaru answers.

'Later.' Hikaru is looking at his running shoes as he slips them on easily. 'I promise.' And he looks up again, for a brief moment, and Akira is trapped by his gaze - so distant, in a location - or is it time? - inaccessible to everyone else but Sai.

But then Hikaru is gone, the door left open behind him, and Akira holds Hikaru's promise as his reason to go forward and close the door between them.

But only until Hikaru comes back to open the door again.

**ooo**

Reviews would be lovely - constructive criticism even more so? :] ~awin


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